Enter the Dragon (1973)

Enter the Dragon (1973)

starring Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly

directed by Robert Clouse

99 minutes

Lee (Bruce Lee) agrees to take part in a martial arts tounament sponsored by Han, a suspected drug kingpin. Han and Lee both trained in martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. Lee is there on behalf of an international law enforcement organization who are trying to get enough evidence on Han to raid his private island. Lee has another motivation for taking the job, one of Han's enforcers is responsible for his sister death.

Lee meets a number of other men who have come to take part in the tournament while they all travel to Han's island. The other competitors include Roper (John Saxon) and Williams (Jim Kelly). Roper and Kelly served together in Vietnam but they have different motivations for taking part in the tournament. Roper owes money to loan sharks and hopes to win enough to pay off his debts. Williams is on the run from the police in the United States.

Lee, Williams, and Roper each run afoul of Han who is hoping that they will come work for him. This leads to a big showdown with Han which completely disrupts the tournament.

Thoughts

I believe that most of the dialogue in this movie is dubbed.

I'm pretty sure that I have seen this movie before but I'm not sure exactly when I saw it. It isn't in my records from 2001 to the present but those records are only about 90 to 95 percent complete. There was a lot of this movie that I did not remember but I'm almost certain that I have seen it before.

The movie isn't about the tournament but the tournament is part of the movie. There are a lot of good fight scenes in this movie but most of them are not part of the tournament.

What does the title mean? Is Bruce Lee the titular Dragon? Might there have been more movies about Lee as crime fighting secret agent if he had not died so soon after the movie was released?

Seeing this movie makes me want to watch other Bruce Lee related films that I have seen before but not for quite some time. I am thinking of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993), The Way of the Dragon (1972), his other films, and his son Brandon's films.

This was a very fun watch. The dialogue and the acting are a bit over the top but I think they add to the experience.